V. I. Lenin

The Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

JULY 17 (30)–AUGUST 10 (23), 1908

SPEECH IN THE DEBATE ON THE RESOLUTION OF POTRESOV
(STAROVER) ON THE ATTITUDE TO THE
LIBERALS{1}

AUGUST 10 (23)

Starover’sresolution will be misconstrued: the student
movement andOsvobozhdeniye{2}are not the same thing at all. It would be
harmful to take the same attitude to both. Struve’s name is too Well known
and the Workers also know him. Comrade Starover thinks that a definite
directive should be issued; I believe we need to define a principled and
tactical attitude.

{1}The Congress adopted two resolutions on the question of the attitude to
the liberals: the first was motioned by Potresov (Starover), the second, by
Lenin, Plekhanov and 13 other delegates (for Plekhanov’s draft with Lenin’s
amendment seeLenin Miscellany VI, pp. 177–78).

Leninsubsequently wrote: “The views of the oldIskrawere
much better expressed in Plekhanov’s resolution, which emphasised the
anti-revolutionary and anti-proletarian character of the liberalOsvobozhdeniye, than in the confused resolution tabled by
Starover, which, on the one hand, aimed (quite inopportunely) at an
‘agreement’ with the liberals, and, on the other, stipulated for it
conditions that were manifestly unreal, being altogether impossible for the
liberals to fulfil” (see present edition, Vol. 7, p. 500).

p. 96

{2}Osvobozhdeniye(Emancipation)—a fortnightly journal
published abroad from June 18 (July 1), 1902 to October 5 (18), 1905, under
the editorship of P. B. Struve. It was the organ of the Russian liberal
bourgeoisie and expounded the ideas of moderate-monarchist liberalism. In
1903 theOsvobozhdeniyeLeague formed round the journal
(officially it came into existence in January 1904). The League existed
until October 1905. The followers ofOsvobozhdeniyeand the
Zemstvo constitutionalists made up the core of the
Constitutional-Democratic (Cadet) Party—the principal bourgeois party in
Russia, which was formed in October 1905.

p. 96